You will need a car. You can stay anywhere on the island that has parking and amenities you are looking for. You will not enjoy the island if you don’t have a car to drive around. Unless you going to Kauai for a specific purpose like a multi day excursion, wedding, honeymoon…., Misertravel recommends you stay on Oahu instead and just fly roundtrip to Kauai on the same day and use a rental car for all your sightseeing. Other than that, be prepared to spend a lot of money if you stay at any accommodations in Kauai.
Book your hotel and rental cars early and stay in Oahu and fly roundtrip daily to the other islands. Book a hotel that allows changes. The price dropped three times when I booked my hotel, and I was able to modify the reservation to a lower rate.
If you are booking any stay in Hawaii, you will realize the grand total to book any type of room on the islands can double with fees. A three-night stay for $600 will usually double to $1200 when you try to book it in Maui, Kauai. If you are just visiting just for sightseeing, you may find staying in Oahu/Honolulu/Waikiki and flying round trip on Hawaiian airlines each day and using a rental car can save you so much money on your trip you can use the extra money saved to travel somewhere else. The island of Oahu has the best prices on everything for the entire state of Hawaii.
Misertravel stayed on Waikiki beach every night and made round trip flights to the other islands and was able to see the entire island of Maui and Kauai by flying to each island early in the morning and returning to Waikiki at night on the last flight. The Hawaiian airlines flights were $40 each way and my hotel in Waikiki was $160 per night with fees. For example, the lowest cost one night stay on Maui was just under $600 per night with all the fees.
You need a rental car. Keep checking the rental car rate you book since the price sometimes drops. Lately, the ‘pay now’ rate on rental cars on third party website is extremely lower than the actual company. Read the reviews from Google from actual customers that rented cars there. Hawaii has a lot of sand, don’t forget to clean inside your rental car before returning it. It’s a good idea to take a video of the car inside and out when you pick it up. Make sure to fill up the gas tank before returning.
Pack your snacks and drinks and go to the supermarket for additional items.
Kauai
The last body of land surrounded by water, and the most recommended to visit is Kauai! Kauai is Hawaii’s fourth largest island and also known as the “Garden Island”. Kauai is typically the most underrated island when running against Maui and Oahu, but it has a lot to offer! It has dramatic sites, rocky sharp mountain spires, and cliffs, eroded overtime which creates valleys and mountains.
Things you shouldn’t do
Touring the island, I drove along the coast of Kauai, so that means there was more sightseeing. There were beaches galore and beautiful rock formations. People crowded at some stops to take pictures. There was also a mini beach that is a hike to get down to, there’s a sign that says not to go down which you should listen to if you don’t want any good pictures. So, naturally as everyone else did I went down. The water was pretty warm and there was a lot of aquatic life.
While touring Kauai, there are lots of signs that say not to go over the fence. It’s best if you listen because there could be rock slides, flash floods, etc. But I went over them anyway. Don’t do what I did.
Glass beach
Glass beach, a beach in Kauai filled with polished sea glass due to erosion. When I went to glass beach the path to go down has huge dips so be careful where you’re stepping. There also isn’t a lot of glass like in the pictures, which makes me think that people either collected it, or the ocean swept away most of the glass. I encourage you to not collect the seaglass, the ocean takes 10-30 years to polish sea glass, you should just take pictures instead.
With that being said, definitely try to commute to Kauai, it has so much to offer, and so many things to see.